Grants totaling $3.6 million were awarded to researchers from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Environmental Defense, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Resources for the Future, and the World Resources Institute to evaluate and develop policies that put a price on greenhouse gas emissions and address other aspects of the regulatory frameworks needed to reduce the threat of global warming. "The organizations in this first round of grants will deliver high-quality analysis and recommendations on the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to tackling climate change through government policy," said Andrew Bowman, the initiative's director. "This work will be critical for Congress and the international community as they step up the debate about how to address climate change and global energy problems."

Putting a price on carbon and developing a new international agreement that encourages nations such as the United States and China to participate are the primary objectives in the first of three climate strategies DDCF will support. The second strategy, which will receive the bulk of the funding, will be to identify and promote policies that accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies, particularly technologies related to energy efficiency, renewable energy, and low-emission uses of coal. The third strategy will be to advance efforts to assess the likely effects of climate change and identify ways to lower their impact on people and the environment.

"In the immediate term, one of the most important things we can do to combat the threat of climate change is to design and implement the best possible pricing policies for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases," said DDCF president Joan Spero. "This type of analytical work matters not only for the domestic policy debate, but also is essential for constructing an international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012."